


Changed

by ottermo



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Gen, Project Theresa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Theresa grows with her dragon.
Kudos: 5
Collections: Project Theresa (Theresa Takeover 2016)





	Changed

**Author's Note:**

> For the ‘dragons’ prompt on Project Theresa Week :-)
> 
> Playing with my Realm of the Elderlings fusion again - also explored in ‘The Quickening’

Theresa awoke to an ache in her temples, and reached up gingerly to feel the skin. She knew what she would find there, of course. New scaling. Pale for now, but soon to be imbued with the deep red that had started collecting by her eyes and at the base of her nails, a shimmering reflection of her dragon. Every day that passed saw her slightly more Changed, slightly further from what most considered to be human.

_Such ingratitude_ , came the smooth voice in her mind.  _You don’t want to look like them, anyway._

“Oh, don’t I?” murmured Theresa, staring up at the sky. The sun was only just starting to think about rising, and everything was quiet in the camp. “Why shouldn’t I want to look human? I am a human.”

_ They sent you away. _

“No. I left.”

_ You chose me. _

“I chose...” Theresa sighed. “I suppose I did. You’re getting offended over nothing, Lightstone. I wasn’t even complaining about my Changes, you were just listening in on me waking up.”

_ I woke you. _

“Of course you did. What is it, then? Meat? Grooming? Flies needing swatting?”

_No, none of that. There’s a ship coming._

“Oh.” Theresa was suddenly more alert. “A liveship?”

_ Yes, and newly quickened. She could be the one._

A shiver rushed through her. “How far?”

_ Start now, and you will reach the harbour when she does. Wear your veil. _

“I know, I know.” Theresa snatched it up and headed for the stream, to wash away her night’s sleep before going down to the harbour. She’d have to wear her veil anywhere she might be seen – the last thing they needed was for the locals to get up a dragon hunt, and the sight of someone as Changed as Theresa would be sure to do it. Better they assume she was merely Touched — disfigured by the Rain Wilds rather than claimed by a dragon.

But if the approaching liveship happened to be the Gertrude, it would be worth any amount of Touching or Changing, Theresa thought as she ran. It would all be worth it.


End file.
